Those Childish Colours
by writeforlove
Summary: The thing about the dead girl was, she wasn't just one colour, she was a rainbow all her own, bright and short lived, and after she was gone, well, it was sometimes hard to remember what the world used to look like. - preseries look at the lives of Duncan, Logan and Veronica before and after Lilly's death.
1. Golden

**A/N: **I feel I must warn you that I disregard everything said about age in canon. If Veronica's birthday is in August, then there's no way she would have been in the same grade as Duncan and Logan because why would her parents have kept her from starting school until she was six? In the series, a seventeen year old Veronica should have been starting her senior year in season one and should have been in the same grade as Lilly before her death. This has **always**__bothered me more than it should, and since we have so little info about everyone else's ages and birthdays, I have decided to adjust Veronica's to be more reasonable at the same time as I worked out everyone else's. This does apply to all my _Veronica Mars_ fics, but this is the first time it's come up explicitly and so I thought I'd point it out. (Sorry about the length of this note!)

**Golden**

_Somehow, despite how it ended, the memory of that day was always a golden, happy one, a bright spot he could always pick out when he looked back on the blacks and blues of greys of how it used to be. _

Logan's just turned eleven years old when his family moves to Neptune, at his mother's rather unusual insistence. His sister, Trina, pouts and moans about leaving her friends and her life in L.A., where she's just entering her senior year of high school, but Logan doesn't complain. He's pretty sure his mom decided to leave _her _friends and _her _life behind so that Logan's dad will have to be away from home even more than he already was.

That's an indisputable improvement for Logan, of course. Still, he's eleven and school just let out for the summer, so he's facing the possibility of not even _meeting_ any kids his age for two months, and that kind of blows. Logan's long known that the more time he spends away from home, the less likely he is to run afoul of his dad's temper, and without friends in this new town, Logan doesn't have anywhere to _go_.

Suddenly his melancholy is interrupted when he spots a small girl running across his back yard. "Hey!" he calls out before thinks about it.

She freezes, looking pretty well terrified. Logan's sorry about that, a little, but honestly, she's the one trespassing in his yard, right?

"I didn't think you would be here," she says hurriedly when he approaches her. "Lilly told me the new family wasn't arriving until next week, and, um, I'm sorry?"

"We got here early," Logan explains, because it's true and because it looks like she might take off running if he doesn't keep the conversation going. He rushes to continue, "My dad had to go do reshoots in London, so my mom figured we might as well move now."

"Oh," says the girl, her blue eyes still too wide. He thinks maybe she isn't as young as he thought at first, just kind of short.

When it becomes clear that she hasn't got anything else to say, and it starts to look like she's going to start edging away, Logan rushes to ask, "Who are you anyway?"

"I'm Veronica," she admits, a bit warily.

"Logan," he offers in response, and now he's wondering if he shouldn't have just let this Veronica girl go when she wanted to, because lonely silence is starting to look a lot better than awkward silence.

"Look, I'm sorry I cut through your yard," she says, and, hey look at that, maybe the whole silence thing was going to work out for him, if she couldn't stand it even more than he couldn't. "It's just, this house has been empty for a while and I know where there's a hole in the fence and a gap in the hedge because Lilly's cousin used to live here and it's the fastest short cut to Lilly's house."

"Okay," Logan responds, a little overwhelmed by the sheer number of words the tiny girl had thrown at him. Even Trina doesn't talk so _fast._

"Okay," Veronica responds, grinning at him like he's a hero for not caring that she took a short cut through his backyard to her friend's house. "Well, bye, Logan."

And then she's turning to go, blonde hair flying behind her again, and it hits Logan that he doesn't _want_ her to go yet. "Wait!" he calls, stumbling a few paces after her.

"Yeah?" she asks, thankfully more curious than bothered.

"Who's Lilly?" Logan asks when he can't come up with anything else.

"Oh, Lilly's my best friend," Veronica says breezily, then she peers at him for a minute. "She's the best; want to meet her?"

"Okay," Logan agrees quickly, hurrying to catch the rest of the way up to Veronica.

"Awesome," Veronica says. "Oh, and she has a brother, too, who was in my class at school. You might like him."

Logan nods, not because he's particularly sure he'll be fast friends with this brother, but because he's pretty sure he'll agree with anything Veronica has to say, so long as she lets him tag along with her rather than sitting by the empty pool outside his mostly empty house.

ooOoo

"Ronica!" calls an imperious voice as she enters the Kanes' backyard. "_There_ you are! You took forever!"

"Sorry, Lilly," Veronica responds, because it's not worth arguing that she managed to walk all the way from her house in less than twenty minutes, a feat which Lilly would never be able to duplicate.

Lilly frowns, "There's a boy following you, did you know?"

Logan looks startled, but doesn't seem prepared to offer any response, so Veronica pipes up. "Yeah, I know. He's Logan," she tells her friend, "He's for Duncan."

"Oh, in that case," Lilly says, as she crosses to the patio doors and yells into the house, "Donut! Get out here! Veronica's brought you a friend!"

"Ducan's the brother?" Logan whispers to her, and Veronica nods. This new boy is kind of shy, she thinks, even though he seemed to have no problem yelling at her before, when she was in his yard.

"Duncan's nice," she assures him, hoping that they'll get along, because otherwise she's not quite sure what she'll _do _with a boy. "You'll like him."

"Hi, Ronnie," Duncan greets her cheerfully. "Hi, new kid."

"I'm Logan," he manages to tell Lilly's brother.

"He just moved into the house two down from yours," she further explains, anxious to facilitate some friendship between the boys. "The one with the loose fence board and the hole in the hedge."

"Oh," Lilly says, her smile a little teasing now, "So you caught Veronica trespassing and decided to follow her like a lost puppy?"

"Lilly," Veronica scolds mildly, because, well, she shouldn't _tease_ the poor kid.

"Basically," Logan agrees, kind of surprising her. "Although I almost didn't make it through the hedge; I'm not quite little enough."

"I'm not _little_!" Veronica protests heatedly, "I'll be eleven in August!"

"I'm already eleven," Logan boasts smugly, and why did Veronica bring him along, again? "My birthday was last week."

"And Duncan will be twelve in September and I'll be thirteen in October," Lilly says, rolling her eyes. "Now that this _fascinating_ topic has been covered, let's do something fun."

Veronica considers telling Lilly that she's being kind of rude, but she knows from experience that it's pointless and likely to make her more rude instead of less.

"Do you like video games?" Duncan asks the new boy, who looks at him like he's a little slow.

"Who doesn't?"

"I'm going to kick all your butts at _Mario Kart_," Lilly declares, racing inside. Veronica is kind of surprised, since when Lilly had called earlier, she'd been gushing about her new nail polish set and demanding Veronica submit to a cuticle makeover.

Of course, it wasn't every day they got a new kid in Neptune, and even Lilly Kane might be susceptible to that kind of mystery.

ooOoo

It's nearly six o'clock before Mrs. Kane suggests that maybe Logan and Veronica should think about heading home, and he doesn't know where the day went. He likes these kids, even the two girls, and spending time with them was way more fun than hanging around on movie sets or being asked by nosy people when he's going to start acting and doesn't he want to be just like his dad?

No, thanks, Logan thinks every time, but he never says it out loud.

Veronica and the Kanes didn't ask about his dad once, except when Duncan had realized his last name was Echolls and asked if Aaron was his dad.

"Oh," he'd said in response. "My dad does computer stuff; he's kind of lame."

"My dad's cool," Veronica interjected, "He's the sheriff."

And then Lilly had won the fifth straight race in _Mario Kart_, and they'd given up and decided to go outside rather than wasting time trying to beat her, and no one had mentioned parents again.

"Come over tomorrow," suggests Duncan as Logan goes to follow Veronica out the door, "We can swim in the pool or something."

"Alright," Logan agrees, because Veronica was right; Duncan Kane is just _nice_.

"Are you coming?" Veronica demands from a little ways down driveway, and Logan hurries to catch up. "My mom doesn't usually care if I'm late, but if I'm not home before my dad, he'll probably come looking for me."

He remembers her saying that her father's the sheriff, and hurries along beside her. He's never met a real police officer before, and Logan think maybe he doesn't want to meet one for the first time when he's angry at his daughter.

"So, do you want me to stop by for you on the way to Lilly's tomorrow?" she offers when they've nearly reached his gate.

Logan grins in response, "You just want to know if you can keep using your short cut, Ronnie."

"That, too," she agrees easily, making him laugh a bit, and he's feeling pretty happy because she let him use Duncan's nickname for her, and Logan thinks she's probably his friend, and he's just sort basking in the feeling.

Then he spots his dad's car in the driveway of the new house and stops laughing.

"Tell you what," he suggests hastily, "I'll walk you home and you can show me the long way between your house and Lilly's."

"Okay," she agrees happily enough, setting off down the block again, getting a few steps ahead of him. "But you're going to be sorry we didn't take the short cut through your yard."

Not likely, Logan thinks.

ooOoo

The new boy seems a bit weird to Veronica, but she ignores it because, well, he is a _boy_, and it's not like she knows any other ones, except Duncan. Maybe all boys are odd. Anyway, she likes him because when he's not being quiet, he's pretty funny, and because she kind of likes the way he glanced at her first before agreeing to go to the movies with Duncan and Lilly later in the week, like he didn't want to go unless Veronica was planning on it.

So when he offers to walk her home, she figures she'll let him, even if it's kind of a stupid idea when he leaves between her house and Lilly's. She asks him what grade he'll be in the fall, and when he says sixth, like her and Duncan, Veronica smiles and goes to ask about where he used to live. Logan beats her to the punch and starts asking a lot of questions about Neptune and which school she goes to and a million other things.

She answers every question, because she figures being the new kid isn't much fun, and then when they get to her house, she just walks in and gestures for him to follow. He looks pretty happy to be invited in, so she doesn't bother worrying about the fact that she doesn't exactly live in a mansion. After taking her shoes off, Veronica shouts, "Mom!"

"Yeah, honey?" comes the reply from the direction of kitchen.

"Is dad home yet?"

"Yes, I most certainly am," her dad responds, walking in the front door behind them, and kind of making Logan jump. "Are you just getting home now, daughter?"

"Yeah, but it was Logan's fault. He didn't want to take the short cut so we had to walk the long way around from Lilly's house," Veronica explains, throwing her arms around her father's waist and ignoring the panicked look on Logan's face when she blames him.

"Who is Logan?" dad wants to know, and since he's looking right at the kid, Veronica understands he's after details.

"He's new," she offers, "He's going to be Duncan's friend and he's going to stay to dinner, okay?"

"Did you ask your mother?"

"Well, no," Veronica responds, "But she won't care."

"Did you ask your parents, Logan?" he wants to know next, and for a second she thinks Logan is going to run out the door instead of answering.

"Mr. Mars," he says, kind of surprising her, "Ronnie didn't even ask _me_."

That makes her dad laugh, and Logan smiles, so Veronica excuses him for sounding so plaintive.

"Yeah, Veronica is like that," her father chuckles, the traitor, "I've tried my best to raise her to be a good soul, but she's an irredeemable heathen, despite my best efforts."

"Oh, she's okay," Logan tells her dad, "Even if she does kind of suck at _Mario Kart_."

"Hey!" Veronica shouts in protest, because it isn't very nice to bug someone about the dismal digital skills when they've just invited you to dinner.

Her dad, though, he's laughing again and ushering Logan into the kitchen to call home and check in, and the new kid looks pretty happy, so she guesses she can let this one slide.

ooOoo

It's pretty late when Sheriff Mars drops Logan off that night, like shortly after 8:30, and Logan is pretty pleased with the amount of time he managed to spend not at home that day, but kind of worried his dad is going to be pissed at him for not being home when he arrived. Sometimes he cares about that stuff, usually when he's got somebody with him he's trying to impress.

"Thanks for the ride, Mr. Mars," Logan says, because he hasn't quite figured out the protocol for what to call Veronica's dad. Duncan had referred to him as 'Sheriff Mars' earlier, and boy did that ever _fit_, but he'd changed out of his uniform before they ate dinner, and then he'd spent an hour playing rummy with Logan and Veronica. It was kind of hard to think of someone as 'Sheriff' anything when he was sitting cross legged on the floor with you, groaning as he lost spectacularly at cards.

"No problem, son," Veronica's dad responded, and he kind of sounded like he meant it. Logan grins, and is hopping out of the car, waving goodbye to Veronica, when suddenly there his own father is strolling out of the house with his why-yes-I'm-a-movie-star smile on. Logan stops by the driver's side door as his father approaches, and wishes with all his might this weren't happening.

"Hey, there, Logan," his dad said, and there's that certain _glint_ in his eye. "I missed you earlier today."

Well, crap. Logan's in for it now.

"Hello," Veronica's dad says, rolling down his window. "You're Logan's dad?"

"That I am," his father responds, grin widening as he plays proud father. "Aaron Echolls. Nice to meet you."

"Keith Mars," is the polite response. "And this is my daughter, Veronica."

"It was mighty neighbourly of you to invite my son to dinner, seeing as we're new in town," he says, and god, does he have to talk like he's in a bad movie even when the cameras aren't rolling?

"Oh, it was no trouble at all," Mr. Mars says easily, "Logan is welcome any time."

"We're going to go swimming at the Kanes' house tomorrow!" Veronica chimes in, then rushes on when her dad shoots her a gently chiding, amused look. "If that's okay with you, Mr. Echolls!"

"Well, of course it is, sugar," his father responds with a wide grin, and god, Logan just _hates_ his dad sometimes. "I imagine anybody would have a pretty hard time turning down an invitation from a sweetheart like you."

But from the heavy weight of his father's hand on his shoulder, as the Mars family car pulls away, Logan can tell that he's not going to be in any shape to swim the next day.

"Rich Snyder and his son drove back from the city with me today," Aaron Echolls informs his son, waving jovially at the disappearing taillights, "They were real disappointed not to see you."

"Sorry, dad," Logan mumbles, whishing pretty desperately that he could go back to earlier that night in Veronica's living room with her family, and maybe just stay there forever. But wishes like that don't ever come true for kids like Logan, and pretty soon his dad is steering him into the house.

Still, Veronica promised to come get him on the way to Lilly's tomorrow, and that's something to look forward to.


	2. Red

**Red**

_He remembers Lilly Kane in red tones, her lips, her laugh, her cruel streak, her blood spilled by the pool, but, most of all, her sunburned back the day he fell in love with her. _

Logan has been living in Neptune long enough that he knows everyone assumes Duncan is his best friend. Hell, maybe it's even true, because he does love the guy, partially because he's kind of impossible _not_ to love, once you've spent any time in his company, and partially because Duncan only ever sees the good in Logan, or anyone else. Actually, come to think of, the second reason may be what leads to the first...

Whatever, Logan is okay with people thinking Duncan is his best friend just because they're both guys; it doesn't matter that Logan thinks Lilly is more fun or that Veronica is just fucking hilarious when she wants to be, or that he'd die for either girl. The point isn't that he wouldn't die for Duncan, too, it's that Duncan Kane is never going to _need_ Logan Echolls to die for him, so why bother with the sentiment?

"Logan," Lilly calls out, her voice teasing in that I'm-not-annoyed-_yet_ way. "Where's your head, superstar?"

He scowls, because he's hated that nickname ever since she started using it after the eighth grade talent show three months ago, when he attempted to form a band with Duncan and Dick Casablancas and ended up with a decidedly _un_musical performance. He's pretty much learned to ignore it, though, so he still replies, "I was thinking I'd take a bullet for you, Kane," because it's the truth, mostly, and he knows it's the kind of thing Lilly likes to hear.

"Who wouldn't?" she asks, but she's grinning and Logan can tell he's been forgiven for the grave sin of ignoring Lilly while sunbathing.

"I know a couple of would-be pep squad chicks who are more likely to do the shooting," Veronica offers from the pool, where she and Duncan have given their ongoing splash war a temporary rest.

"Well, Echolls, are you up for it?" Duncan asks solemnly, "Are you man enough to save my sister from the wrath of scorned cheerleaders?"

"No," Logan rejoins promptly, even though it makes Lilly scowl at him. "I have a solemn vow never to disrupt a girl fight."

"Darn," Veronica sighs, "I guess if I can't count on you to defend me, I'd better cancel that prank I have planned on Madison Sinclair."

"Never fear, Ronnie," Duncan puts in, striking a somewhat ridiculous pose, "I'll protect you!"

"Ugh, Donut, as if _you _were anyone's ideal bodyguard," Lilly teases, complete with overdone eye-rolling, something of a specialty of hers, just lately, "You'd probably end up apologizing to Madison on Veronica's behalf."

The blonde in question giggles, which is apparently inexcusable since Duncan is back to practically drowning her again within seconds, and then they're off in their stupid splash competition, and no, Logan isn't jealous that the current condition of his back is keeping him out of the pool, what would give you that idea? The newest wounds have closed, and now it's just a matter of keeping on his shirt long enough to avoid calling attention to the healing skin. He'll be swimming by the end of the week, as long as he doesn't do anything new to piss off his dad.

"You know, Echolls, you might make a better knight in shining armour then any boy I know," Lilly tells him, her smile wide, "You know, defender of the weak and innocent."

Logan snorts, "I'm not too great at the whole defense thing," he tells her, thinking of how he so often finds himself just _standing there, taking it_ as his dad rains down blow after blow.

Lilly takes off her sunglasses and sits up on her lounger to face him squarely. Apparently this is going to be _important_. "Why would you say that?" she asks, and, yeah, Logan's pretty sure she's figured out the sort of things that happen inside the gates of the Echolls estate, but he's not about to _talk_ about it to anyone.

"I'm not some action hero star," Logan says, and then because he knows she won't let it rest without some concession on his part, he adds, "Like my father."

"Fuck your father," Lilly tells him very seriously, "You are worth at least a thousand of him, any day."

And it's not like this isn't something Logan has tried to tell himself every time the belt cracks through the air, but it's different somehow, coming from the girl, most of a year older than him, staring him down in a red bikini, and saying it like she really, truly believes it. And god, it's a beautiful moment, maybe the most beautiful one in his life, and it's fitting, somehow that the soundtrack to Lilly's words are the playful screams and splashes of Duncan and Veronica.

These people, these three kids, they're his _family_, Logan realizes, not his father, or Trina or even his mother, who Logan does mostly love.

"If only you were any good at applying sunscreen," Lilly sighs, before turning to show him the angry red sunburn across her shoulders.

"I did try," Logan protests, a little breathlessly, still reeling from the internal shifting of his world view. "I can try again, if you want."

"No point now, Echolls; the damage is done," Lilly shrugs, "Just give me your t-shirt to wear so it doesn't get worse and we'll be even."

"Lilly," Logan says warningly, because he knows she _knows, _okay? She doesn't have to make him say it.

"Logan," she returns, parroting his tone. "T-shirt, now. No one here gives a rat's ass what you look like topless."

So he pulls off the shirt, hands it to Lilly, who promptly puts it on, and Logan just sits there kind of stupidly, like he's waiting for the other shoe to drop. Lilly rolls her eyes at him, because she's the only one allowed to have a dramatic moment, apparently. "Go get in the pool," she orders him.

And in a second Logan dives off the side, streaking through the water to yank Veronica under by her ankle. She comes up spluttering while Duncan cheers from the shallow end, and Lilly, dressed in his shirt and her red bikini, laughs, and Veronica swears vengeance on him, trying to sink him with her small hands splayed across the shiny pink scar tissue on his shoulders.

Logan evades her, and in the process manages to pick her up and fling her across the pool in Duncan's direction, soaking them both. Now he's laughing and Lilly's cheering from the sidelines, and all he can think is, _thank god for Lilly Kane_.


	3. Orange

**Orange**

_Veronica has this bottle of orange blossom perfume that Lilly gave her; she saves it for special occasions, so it lasts for years, and when the bottle is empty, Logan buys her a new one because it reminds him of the happiest part of his childhood. _

Fall in California is kind of a rip off, Logan thinks, what with the unchanging palm trees and the lack of school holidays, but at least some of the 09er parents, his mother included, seem inclined to _try_ to make it a festive season. There's a hay bale maze set up in the park and candy overflowing at every corner and wagon rides and pumpkin carving, all of which culminates in a spectacularly lame party on Halloween night.

Logan's first thought when he hears about it, is that even trick-or-treating, which he hasn't bothered to do in four years, would be a better idea. He lobbies heavily for Lilly to continue her tradition of throwing a Halloween party at her house, but is shouted down by the girls.

"It's more fun to spike the punch under the adults nose than it is to just open up the liquor cabinet at home," Lilly tells him sagely, "Besides, this way our house won't be teeming with people when we're done partying and want to be _alone_."

And because Lilly has just recently started to do fun things like taking off her shirt when they're _alone_, Logan caves pretty quickly.

It turns out to be his week for losing battles, too, because not only does he get talked into to dressing up in a group costume; Lilly and Veronica want to go as the Scooby-Doo characters.

"I'm Daphne, of course," Lilly declares breezily, displaying a tight purple dress and matching sheer stockings he can kind of get on bored with. "And Veronica's is Velma."

"You will _melt_ in that sweater," Logan tells the shorter girl.

"Well, Velma's the smart one," Veronica counters, "So I'll just be _smart _enough to take it off before that happens."

"Well, that's something to look forward to, anyway," Logan teases, making Veronica blush and Lilly swat his arm. "For _Duncan_ to look forward to, I mean. And anyway, Mars, why are you so cheerful about this plan?" Logan asks suspiciously, "I thought you were set on going as Buffy the Vampire slayer?"

"I was," Veronica says, a terrifying amount of excitement welling up in her eyes, "But _then_ Lilly agreed that Backup could be Scooby!"

Logan groans; Backup was a recent gift from her father, and Veronica loves that dog to an utterly outlandish degree. Logan hates him with almost equal passion. "Ronnie, I swear your dad trained him to growl at me every time I come within twenty feet of you," he complains.

"Well, if you didn't want things like that to happen, then you shouldn't have told her that her 'ass was out of this world' in front of him," Lilly informs him without an ounce of pity.

"She was wearing leggings with _stars and planets _and shit on them!" Logan defends himself for what might well be the thousandth time, "It was a _joke_. Besides, I didn't know the sheriff was behind me!"

"Then you might want to work on your timing," Lilly suggests.

Veronica has marginally more sympathy. "Come on, Echolls," she tells him, tugging him to his feet. "We'll go get some dog treats and you can try to make friends with my big bad puppy dog."

"It's a _pit bull_, not a poodle," Logan gripes, but he follows Veronica out anyway.

ooOoo

The night of the wretched event, Veronica stops at his house on the way to the Kanes', and throws his costume at him as soon as he opens the door for her.

"Merry Christmas," she says, before instruct her demon dog to sit.

"Wrong holiday," he grumbles, reluctantly reaching out to pet Backup, who takes it with pretty good grace. Logan is glad to know that three hours of his life and an enormous box of treats didn't go entirely to waste. "It's Halloween."

"Potato, po-tah-to," she replies glibly, "It's a holiday and I've brought you a present."

"Gee, just what I always wanted," he says, opening the bag. "Hey, wait, I'm Shaggy?"

"Yeah," she says, "Lilly's orders."

"So, Duncan is the Fred to her Daphne?" he wants to know.

"He's got the better build to be Fred," Veronica says, raising her eyebrows. "Is this a problem for you, or were you just really, really hoping for a chance to wear an ascot?"

"Duncan and Lilly are dressing up as Fred and Daphne?" he asks, because he's still not sure he's got it right.

"Affirmative; nothing gets past you, big guy," Veronica agrees, "Are you getting in character or something? Because even _Shaggy_ would have solved the mystery by now..."

"No, smartass," he says, "I'm just marvelling at all the layers of totally _not_ creepy subtext going on here."

"Don't be gross, Logan," Veronica scolds him, "They're _cartoon characters_, for pete's sakes!"

"And yet somehow that wasn't a valid reason not to want to dress up as them?" Logan rejoins, even though he's already heading into the other room to change clothes.

"Life's funny like that, isn't it?" she calls after him.

ooOoo

"You know, Scooby," Logan tells the pit bull at his side some time later, "I'm actually really glad you're here, if you can believe it."

It's totally true, too, because somehow he managed to get put on leash holding duty, and that has come in so _incredibly handy_ that he's considering stealing Veronica's dog on a more permanent basis. Or he would be, if he wasn't sure that that would, you know, break her heart. Still, he might do it, because Backup has stopped him from getting roped into pouring glasses of un-spiked punch like Duncan _and _kept him from having to dance to the _Monster Mash_ and other such fun themed tunes like Veronica and Lilly are somehow _voluntarily_ doing.

"You know, dog, I think I may love you," he goes so far as to tell Backup when the beast kicks up a growling fuss that sends Carrie Bishop, that gossiping bitch, running in the other direction.

"See!" squeals Veronica when she, rather unfortunately, overhears that last confession of affection. "I knew you'd come around!"

She whips her bare arms around him in a hug that contains more bouncing then is typical for Veronica, and leans away from him with her fake glasses and short brunette wig askew. He figures it's a tossup between whether Lilly has managed to get her marginally buzzed or whether some of Veronica's adoration of Backup has managed to leak over onto Logan.

"Whatever, Mars," Logan sneers, even though he knows it's now pointless, "Get back on that dance floor before I have _my _dog bite you."

Veronica beams at him, then asks "Hold my sweater for me?" before tossing the enormous orange garment at him.

"I told you not to wear it, Ronnie," he comments, tucking it under his arm anyway.

"That's funny," she says with a conniving little grin, "I thought you told me to _take it off_."

Then she's gone in the crowd, and Logan is left chuckling to her dog. "You know, Backup, I think one day you are going to be kept very busy chasing off boys for Sheriff Mars."

ooOoo

It's barely ten o'clock when they decide they've had enough of PG Halloween and head back to the Kane residence. And sure, Logan could cry false advertising because he's pretty sure he won't be spending much time _alone_ with Lily, since Duncan, Veronica _and _her dog are walking with them, but somehow he's not terribly upset. His sometimes-girlfriend is regaling them with the story of some fifth grader who had a melt down when Lilly wouldn't let her try on her red wig, and Veronica, cold now despite her hideous sweater, is tucked in closely between him and Duncan.

Logan is still Official Keeper of the Dog Leash, so Backup is trotting beside him, a surprisingly comforting presence.

They've all been granted (in some cases rather reluctant) parental permission to sleep in the Kane's pool house, and Logan is just content to have all his friends beside him. The night slides by in a happy, noisy blur, and they play the usual stupid games and split a bottle of pumpkin flavoured booze that Lilly somehow procured. And if it's not all that different from a lot of other times, well, Logan doesn't have enough tranquility in his life to ever be bored by it.

Towards dawn, when they're all starting to fall asleep, Lilly gets up from the King sized mattress where she had been dozing between Logan and Veronica.

"What are you doing, Lilly?" Veronica asks, turning to snuggle closer to Logan to compensate for the loss of her best friend's warmth. Logan's happy enough to accommodate her, since Duncan somehow managed to cocoon himself in all the blankets somewhere off to Veronica's right.

"Your dog _stinks_, Ronica," she explains.

"Don't be mean, Lil," Logan scolds, feeling compelled to defend the creature how has thawed so thoroughly towards him that he licked Logan's cheek not twenty minutes ago. "He's a good dog."

"He still smells bad," Lilly counters before returning to spritz every inch of the bed and its occupants with perfume. It smells okay, kind of delicate and fruity, but Logan figures he could have done without so _much_ of it. He turns his and finds his nose buried in Veronica's hair; truth be told, he kind of prefers the familiar vanilla of her shampoo.

"What's that scent?" Veronica murmurs sleepily as Lilly drapes herself on Logan's left. "It's nice."

"You can have it," Lilly informs her best friend, carelessly across her boyfriend's chest. "Celeste bought me two; it's called orange blossom burst."


	4. Yellow

**Yellow**

_Logan hates the yellow SUV pretty much on sight, but he still goes ahead and trades in the sweet little Porsche his dad gave him for his sixteenth birthday and buys the tacky thing, because it reminds him of this girl he used to know._

Duncan tries not be a jerk about the fact that his dad is the richest man in a town brimming with rich men, and he really appreciates that his parents restrain themselves to mere 'keeping up with the Joneses' displays of wealth, most of the time.

It still really sucks that they are making him share a car with his sister, especially since Lilly turns sixteen eleven months before him and has _ideas_ about the kind of car she wants to drive.

"I want something _fast_," Lilly insists, pouring over catalogues and internet printouts and who knows what else with Veronica.

"How fitting," Logan snipes, and honestly, these days Duncan can't tell if that's just Logan being Logan or if he and Lilly are on the outs _again_.

"And _foreign_," Lilly continues blithely.

"In keeping with your taste in guys," Logan inserts, and oh, apparently they _are_ fighting, probably over that French exchange student that Lilly was hanging all over a couple of nights ago at the Casablancas's party.

"Your dad is not going to buy you that," Veronica insists, after patting Logan comfortingly on the knee, looking at the vehicle Lilly's currently drooling over.

"Why not?" Lilly whines, "He's richer than Midas!"

"And unfortunately for you, a smidge more practical," Veronica argues mercilessly, and Duncan may love her in this moment more than he ever has before, just for sparing him this particular fight with Lilly.

"You want practical? I can be practical," Lilly insists, her smile turning devious as she contemplates the challenge her best friend has inadvertently offered. "Let's go test drive some cars; you know, so we can make really _wise_, _informed _decisions."

"Um, Lil," Duncan begins nervously, desperately trying to come up with some way to derail his sister's plot. "Why don't we wait until Dad gets home?"

"Because I'm bored _now_, Donut," she counters, "And I'm the oldest, so I'm in charge of you kiddies when the parents are away."

She flounces out to call up a town car, and Duncan knows she expects them all to follow along like puppies, or maybe well-trained sheep. The worst part is, he knows they probably will, because she's _Lilly_, and because his parents might be less pissed at her if Duncan goes, too, and, well, she's _Lilly. _They're not about to abandon her to even her own wild schemes.

Even so, Duncan is nervous. "Logan, maybe if you distracted her..." he suggests tentatively.

"Nah, man," Logan replies moodily, "I think I'll sit this one out."

Veronica looks worried about him, and she reaches over to squeeze Logan's hand. Sometimes, Duncan wonders if he should worry about something happening between his girl friend and his best friend, but he can't seem to muster the conviction for it. There's always just been this easiness between them, ever since that first day he'd followed Veronica to their door. How had Lilly put it? Veronica had brought Duncan a friend, that was it. That was true, of course, only it wasn't the whole truth because she'd kept a piece of Logan for herself. They belonged to each other, maybe, but it was kind of like the way Lilly and Duncan belonged to each other.

"You'll come with us, won't you?" Duncan's girlfriend asks his best friend, and his best friend nods, because when has he ever said no to Veronica?

"Wait, you're just going to let this happen?" Duncan asks, because isn't Veronica supposed to be the one who reigns Lilly in?

"Oh, how much harm could she do?" Veronica asks lightly as she and Logan stand up and start to follow Lilly's path into the house. "There'll be a salesman in the car the whole time."

ooOoo

How much harm could Lilly do with a salesman in the car the whole time?

Apparently a whole heck of a lot, because the afternoon's excursion ends with one bumblebee yellow Ferrari wrapped around a telephone poll, two very angry parents and one teen passenger narrowly avoiding a trip to the hospital.

It started when Lilly walked in to the luxury dealership and fallen in love with the most hideous sports car Duncan had ever seen in his life. "It's yellow," he'd protested mildly.

"Yeah, yellow like the _sun_," she'd squealed, bouncing around it in absolutely ridiculous joy.

"More yellow like a _banana_," Logan had pitched in, and Duncan wasn't sure whose side that was supposed to help in this particular argument.

"Yellow like _sunflowers_," Lilly countered.

"Yellow like a _rubber duck_," Veronica suggested, sounding more amused than Duncan was hoping for. He really, really did not want to drive a yellow car when he gets his license.

"Yellow like _lemon_ _starbursts_," Lilly offered dreamily.

"Yellow like actual _lemons_," Duncan countered warily.

"Yellow like fun and excitement and adventure!" Lilly sang happily, and then she was flashing her black AmEx and her cleavage in equal measures to convince the sales guy that he wanted to let four teenagers test drive the most expensive car in his inventory.

"And to think, after all that work," Logan snarks as the survey the wreckage less than ten minutes later, "You crash less than a block off the lot."

Well, at least the accident cheered Logan up somewhat.

"What are you so happy about, asshole?" Lilly hisses. "You're just as dead as the rest of us, if not more so!"

"My parents are in Aspen," Logan counters with a grin that may actually count as _evil._ "By the time they get back, this will be a quaint anecdote we all laugh about."

"Oh, no," moans Veronica, which surprises Duncan because she has been fairly sanguine until this moment. "Oh no, oh no, oh no."

"It's been a privilege to serve with you, Mars," Logan says solemnly, as Duncan turns to see a squad car pull up to the scene and Veronica's father disembark. "Maybe I'll catch you in fifty or so years, when you're done being grounded."

"We'll see a movie," Veronica suggests, even though she looks genuinely glum, "I'm sure your dad will have something playing about a secret agent going undercover in a nursing home to foil a ring of denture thefts."

"Careful not to pitch that plot where he can hear it, Mars, or there goes your screenplay," Logan cautions her.

"_Veronica Gertrude Mars_!" the sheriff shouts across two lanes of traffic before managing to cross the street.

"_Gertrude_?" Logan questions in glee. Duncan wonders how Veronica managed to keep her middle name from Logan so long.

"Well, I guess fifty years isn't all bad," Veronica responds, "Maybe by the time I'm sprung you'll have forgotten you heard that."

"I wouldn't count on it, Gertie," Logan disagrees.

Veronica doesn't have a chance to respond, because her dad is upon them and he is _shouting_ like Duncan has never heard, until, of course, his own father shows up two minutes later. This goes on for a while, the words of the simultaneous lectures ringing in Duncan's ears until finally the hovering salesman and his manager distract his father long enough to go and write a cheque, and Sheriff Mars winds down after Veronica offers a teary, doe eyed apology.

"Baby," Lilly croons suddenly, distracting Logan, who had been watching Veronica's performance with frank approval on his face. "You're bleeding!"

"What?" Logan asks, "Oh, yeah, a bit. The impact kind of broke open that cut I got, uh, surfing last week."

"I'm so sorry," Lilly says, biting her lip, and Duncan is surprised to find he believes her. He suspects the Logan/Lilly breakup will be resolved within hours. "I'll ask my dad to let me bandage it for you before I'm grounded for life."

"Don't ask your father for any favours right now, Lilly," Sheriff Mars advises her, "We'll take you to the hospital, son."

Logan shifts uncomfortably for a minute, before Veronica rolls her eyes for her dad's benefit. "Logan is a wuss about hospital's dad," she tells him, "If you've got your first aid kit in the car, I can just fix him up now."

The sheriff looks dubious, but he leads Veronica and Logan to his car, and pretty soon the Kane children are watching their friends drive off while their dad buys them out of this latest mess.

"I'm going to miss that car," Lilly sighs mournfully when there's only her brother to hear her.

"And I'm going to enjoy the nice, safe, reliable, _grey_ automobile I will now be able to convince our parents to buy," Duncan informs her.

"Grey?" Lilly asks "Like pavement?"

"Yes, Lilly," Duncan says, wrapping a bracing arm around her as they watch the yellow-like-excitement wreckage smoke, "Like solid, indestructible pavement."

"Our car is going to be so _slow_," she moans.

"Well, fewer speeding tickets for you, then," he suggests cheerfully.


	5. Green

**Green**

_Later, she has a daughter whose middle name is Lilly, and sometimes looking at her reminds her of her best friend, with the cool hazel eyes that sometimes shifted to green, like an oasis in the desert; most of the time, though, she's pretty sure she's imaging it._

No one ever dislikes Veronica Mars, who is friendly and helpful, and who's dad is sheriff, if all else fails, but no one, except her dad and maybe her mom, really _loves_ her until the day Lilly Kane sees her telling off Madison Sinclair and Dick Casablancas for laughing at the new kid's stutter.

"You're funny," Lilly tells her, bestowing her with that special smile that means _you're in_ in Neptune. Veronica is kind of startled to see it aimed directly at her, and even more by the words that follow it. "Come have lunch with me; I've got peanut butter cookies I'll share."

And because one doesn't turn down an invitation to lunch from Lilly Kane, Veronica dutifully hauls her pink lunch pail to the proper table at the appointed hour. And because Lilly Kane issued the order and bestowed the smile, not even Madison, who she was yelling that that morning, protests Veronica Mars' inclusion.

Not long after that, Madison and the others fall away and then Logan Echolls moves to town, and her friendship with Lilly stops being a passing flight of the rich girl's fantasy. Veronica is realistic enough to know that the way Lilly's mother seems to hate her helps.

But it's not the reason she's around, anymore. Lilly loves her; it's as easy as that.

Or, usually it is. But she's fifteen years old, and of her three best friends, she's dating one, and currently watching the other two have a knockdown, drag out fight at an 09er bonfire.

"You're such an ass," Lilly finishes contemptuously, spinning on her heel and shooting her brother a look with eyes that burn green flames to rival the yellow ones licking at the driftwood. "Come on, Duncan; I need a drink."

And she disappears through the crowd, and Veronica sighs. She's not sure if Lilly expected her to follow, too, like Duncan, but she's not about to abandon Logan to a group of 09er jocks with access to a keg. Not in the mood he's in.

"Come on, Echolls," she sighs, "Let's go lick your wounds."

"Careful, Ronnie," he says with angry sarcasm, "I might just take you up on that offer, now that I no longer have a girlfriend."

"Don't be gross," she responds automatically, nonetheless wrapping an arm around his waist. "Or, if you absolutely _must_ be, at least wait until you've got a more appreciative audience."

"Am I offending your delicate sensibilities?" he wants to know, heavy irony in his voice.

"Yes," she declares, even though she figures she's being set up, playing up the southern belle accent. "I am an innocent little blossom that must be protected from the corrupting influences of boys like you, Mr. Echolls."

"You know, Ronnie, ordinarily I'd take you at your word," he says, wrapping his arm around her shoulder, and she kind of appreciates the additional warmth more than she's annoyed by the condescending gesture, "Except last night, I witnessed you wrap your lips around a popsicle in a way that scarred _my _innocence."

"Hey! That was a dare," she protests, blushing red and ducking her heard to avoid is gaze.

"Dare or not, you just about made Duncan come in his pants," Logan informs her, lips twisting into an easy smile, "And his sister was still in the room."

"Hush!" she scolds, "There is a strict cone of silence policy around any and all games of truth and dare."

"It's just you and me, Ronnie," Logan points out, and look at that, he's right. They've wandered far enough down the beach that even the bonfire seems small behind them; no wonder she was cold before he put his arm around her. "And we know all each other's secrets."

"You sure about that?" she taunts, "Because I could have secrets."

Logan laughs, "You've got secrets, Mars?" he asks.

"I _could_," she insists, even though she can't think of anything this boy doesn't already know about her.

"Well, that won't do," he declares, and then, catching her by surprise, he scoops her into his arms and runs to the water's edge, dangling her over the splashing surf. "Tell me what I want to know, Ronnie!"

"Logan!" she shrieks, but she can't quite make it sound threatening around her laughter, "Put me down!"

"Tell me!"

And she concedes, because, really, is there another option? "Okay, okay! I don't have any secrets!"

She's upright, and thankfully still dry, a moment later, and he's grinning smugly at her. She shoves him, and because he wants to, he falls to the ground, dragging her with him. "I knew it, Ronnie," he tells her quietly, "I knew there was nothing about you I didn't know."

"Maybe there will be, someday," she suggests reflectively, "Maybe someday we'll grow up and go away to school and only ever see each other at high school reunions and special occasions."

"Never, Ronnie," Logan denies, "Never, ever, ever going to happen."

"Good," she tells him, looking up at the stars, her head on his shoulder.

"Well, this looks cozy," Lilly comments, suddenly leaning over the pair on the sand, her eyes shining green, her lips quirked. "Private party or is anyone welcome?"

"It's a free country," Logan tells her, and that's about as close to apologizing as he's likely to come. Veronica hopes Lilly accepts it; she hate those awkward times when Lilly and Logan are on the outs and she and Duncan spend their time trading off friends for a couple of weeks.

"What did you do with your brother?" Veronica asks, sitting up.

Lilly extends a hand and helps Veronica stand form the sand. "He's waiting for you by the car," she reveals. "Give us half an hour and then we'll all leave together."

Veronica smiles and walks off in the direction of the parking lot; glancing back, she sees that Lilly has already joined Logan on the sand. This might just be the shortest breakup yet.

ooOoo

It's pretty late that night, and Veronica is nearly asleep in Lilly's bed when her friend decides she wants to talk about the serious stuff.

"I hate fighting with Logan," she sighs, and though Veronica thinks maybe Lilly actually loves the drama of it, she still gets what her friend is trying to say.

Even so, it's late and well, if Lilly doesn't want to fight with Logan, there's a pretty obvious solution. "Well, maybe try not flirting with that cute guy from your chemistry class in front of him."

"But it would be _cheating_ if I flirted behind Logan's back," Lilly insists, purposefully widening her eyes and blinking like she really doesn't know _what_ Veronica could _possibly _mean.

"Why do you have to flirt at all?" Veronica demands, "You've _got_ Logan."

"_Logan_ flirts, too," Lilly defends petulantly, even though Veronica knows Lilly doesn't actually worry about things like that.

"_Logan_ ignores every other girl on the planet, when you're willing to give him the time of day," Veronica insists, because it's true.

"He never ignores you," Lilly says softly, and something shifts in her green-hazel eyes as she says it. Veronica is sick of this fight.

"Lilly, I'm his _friend_," she stresses, "You're the girl he _loves_; just let him love you."

"You wouldn't understand," Lilly complains, and that look is gone, and she's just a girl, moaning about her relationship again, "Duncan adores you with his _words_. Logan and I don't work like that."

"So if he told you you're pretty and that he loved you more often, you wouldn't fight with him?" Veronica asks sceptically.

"Well, at least not as often," Lilly maintains, "Although I would miss the make-up sex; god, Ronica, that boy has _moves_ like you wouldn't believe. Earlier, on the beach-"

"I'm sensing this is a story that ends with a lot of sand in uncomfortable places," Veronica interrupts, because while she can't always avoid hearing the details of her best friend's sex life, she has so far managed not to hear anything scarring about one of her dearest friends.

"Maybe," Lilly agrees with a laugh, "But it was still awfully fun."

"I'll take your word for it," Veronica says drowsily, her eyes blinking slowly, the image of her best friend's face on the pillow beside her wavering slightly.

"You wouldn't have to, if you and my brother would just get over your shy virgin thing, already," Lilly declares, and great, this old fight. "Honestly, if I were Duncan I would have dumped your ass months ago."

"Thanks," Veronica responds drily.

"Oh, you know I'm kidding," Lilly insists airily, "I'm only saying that I don't understand what you're waiting for. It's just sex."

"It's not like that with Duncan and me," Veronica tries to explain, "We actually enjoy spending non-naked time together and _talking_ and stuff. "

"Oh, you and your _talking_," Lilly laughs, "Every time I turn around, you're off somewhere _talking_ to Duncan or Logan or even someone else. What do you even _say_?"

Veronica thinks Lilly may be genuinely curious, so she does her best to be serious, "I guess it depends on what the other person is saying," she explains. "You've just got to be willing to listen, most of the time, and you're okay."

"So, listening is your super power, Veronica Mars," Lilly deduces, starting to sound a little sleepy herself.

"You've got me, Lilly Kane," Veronica murmurs. "Now that you've figured it out are you going to steal my power and replace me?"

"No," Lilly sighs, and Veronica must be dreaming already because it sounds like her best friend is truly regretful, "I could never be you, 'Ronica. I'll just settle for having you love me best."


	6. Blue

**Blue**

_He's never understood why depression was described in shades of blue; blue for him will always be the wide sky, the perfect freedom of driving across the desert with the only three people that ever mattered._

For his sixteenth birthday, Duncan's given the second set of keys to his sister's car. Since that's sort of an underwhelming present, and he's known about it for the eleven months since Lilly's birthday, he manages to talk his parents into approving a weekend road trip, even though school is only just now getting underway. Logan is cleared to participate nearly as quickly, and Duncan kind of wonders why he even bothered to ask for permission. Mr. Echolls has been home on a shooting break for months and Logan has slept at the Kane's house more nights than he has at home; his parents probably wouldn't have even noticed him being gone for the weekend.

A couple of times when Duncan's parents have sent Logan home, Duncan knows that Veronica took pity on him and offered up the couch in her living room. And while Sheriff Mars has been pretty understanding about that, it still falls to Duncan to talk to Veronica's dad, who hasn't exactly been eager to okay Veronica's participation in the trip.

"You'll be gone how long?" he asks, a deceptively pleasant smile on his face. Duncan, sitting across from him on the couch, knows better than to trust it. He's been dating Veronica for more than a year now, and he's done this whole impress-the-father-before-the-big-date thing a couple of times.

"Three days, sir," Duncan says promptly. "Veronica has an English test Friday morning, then, with your permission, we'll leave after first period."

"So, three days, and two _nights_," the sheriff sums up, raising his eyebrows, and oh god, this is _not_ a discussion he wants to have with Veronica's _father_.

"Yes, sir," he says, because there's no point in denying it. "Lilly has been researching hotels, and we've got camping gear, too, just in case."

"Hotels?" Sheriff Mars asks, his tone still pleasant.

"_Daddy!_" protests Veronica from the other room, where she's been eavesdropping on them.

"Quiet! We're not taking comments from the peanut gallery at the moment!" he calls out, before turning his attention back to Duncan. "Now, son, you were saying something about hotel rooms?"

"There will be two!" Duncan says, starting to sweat a little now, because he now knows that not only does he have to convince his girlfriend's dad to let her go away with him, but he has to do so in such a way that will minimize the amount of teasing he takes from said girlfriend later. "Both nights! One for Lilly and Veronica and one for me and Logan, I mean, not... um, any other combinations. Unless you'd prefer that we all have our own rooms? Because we could do that, too. And, um, maybe on separate sides of the hotel, or, uh..."

"Two rooms should be fine, Duncan," Sheriff Mars says eventually, and thank god, because Duncan's brain had started to go _melt_.

"Thank you, sir," he sighs in relief, then he catches up a bit, "Wait – does that mean so can go?"

"I suppose," he says sternly, except his eyes don't quite bear that out, Duncan notices, now that he's not totally preoccupied by terror. "As long as she promises to call every night to let us know where you are, and shares a room with Lilly."

"Thank you, sir," Duncan repeats, managing a shaky smile.

"Thank you, daddy," Veronica copies him, bounding into the room and kissing her father on his cheek. "Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to walk my boyfriend to the door before he leaves a permanent sweat stain on our couch."

"Whatever you think is best, honey," Sheriff Mars agrees, and okay, that dude is definitely _laughing _at him.

"He _enjoyed_ that," Duncan complains once the front door closes behind the two teenagers.

"Are you kidding?" Veronica asks, "He lives for the times he gets to torture you."

"That's not very nice," Duncan observes mildly.

Veronica doesn't look especially put out on his behalf, "Hey, the man just agreed to let his fifteen year old daughter accompany her sixteen year old boy friend on a trip that features nights in hotels. You're lucky his gun wasn't involved in the discussion."

ooOoo

They set out right from school, having packed the car the night before, with no real destination in mind. Veronica has been pouring over maps, Duncan at her side, while Logan continually spouted off about the merits of Las Vegas. Lilly ignored all of that, though, when she hopped in the front passenger seat and turned to her brother behind the wheel.

"Drive east, Donut," she instructs, while in the back Logan and Veronica bicker, fighting over space amongst all the _stuff_ that Lilly had insisted was essential to the trip.

So he drives east, and soon they're driving through the desert, travelling at an easy pace. Sometimes they sing along to the radio, or play stupid car games or talk and laugh about the rest of the students stuck back in Neptune, still in school, with only terrible 09er parties to look forward to that weekend. Logan and Lilly take turns with Duncan behind the wheel, and once Logan goads Veronica into driving down a desolate stretch of highway despite the fact that she just turned fifteen last month and has never driven so much as a go-kart before.

They check into a hotel along the way, one that holds up to Lilly's standards and gladly provides them with two rooms. "Are you sure you don't want to see if they've got one on the other side of the hotel?" Veronica asks him, when he accepts the keys to the rooms 13 and 14.

Duncan rolls his eyes and grabs a couple of the bags that Lilly and Veronica chose from the many in the trunk of the car. Logan takes the rest, shrugging off Veronica's offer to help, and instead insisting she regale them with the story of how Duncan persuaded her father to let Veronica join the road trip.

She does so, with great relish, exaggerating the way he'd stumbled over himself when it came to questions about the sleeping arrangements. They're all laughing at him as he opens the door to room 14, and everyone stumbles in together.

Lilly collapses on one of the two beds, her cloud of blonde hair flowing across the navy blankets, and Logan promptly inspects the mini-bar, chucking a room service menu at Veronica. "Order two of everything, Mars," he instructs, "I'm starving."

"Logan, this menu has six pages," Veronica laughs, "You can't have two of _everything_."

"Sure I can," Logan responds, digging out a credit card and handing it over, too, "Aaron's paying."

Lilly, obviously sensing a protracted argument in the offing, grabs her bag and claims the bathroom, declaring her intent to shower. Duncan considers going next door and doing the same, but he's pretty happy sprawled on the bed his sister has just vacated.

"It's still too much food," Veronica insists, studying the menu critically, sitting cross legged on the other bed. "It would be a waste, Logan."

"Come on, Ronnie, you know you love to waste my father's money just as much as I do," Logan wheedles temptingly, and Duncan watches is girlfriend roll her eyes and give in.

"I'll order you two steaks," she concedes, "And some caviar that none of us will eat, okay?"

"Sure," Logan agrees, "And a couple of cheeseburgers, and some milkshakes."

"Chocolate?" Veronica questions, sounding on the verge of amusement.

"Three chocolate and a strawberry," Logan confirms. "And, like, a cheesecake or something."

Veronica rolls her eyes, "I guess I'd better get a pen to write this all down."

"Hear that, everybody? Ronnie's taking orders!" Logan crows.

She pins him with an annoyed look that even someone who didn't know Veronica well would be able to tell is entirely faked. "Only the food related kind."

"I'll take a cheeseburger," Duncan interjects, because he can tell that Logan's got an especially clever retort at the ready, and it's better to head off these kinds of things when possible. Otherwise, Logan and Veronica may never get around to ordering food.

"Champagne!" Lilly calls from the bathroom before the sounds of running water can be heard.

"I'll order her a chicken wrap, too," Veronica decides aloud. "Or she'll be passed out on champagne fumes by eleven."

Veronica orders the food, glaring as Logan continues to add things to the order while she's on the phone, and finally hangs up. "They're going to _spit_ in all of it," she complains. Logan only grins. "And one of you two will have to answer the door because I always get carded, and I haven't got the I.D.s I printed in my dad's office back yet."

"You printed new I.D.'s and didn't make me one?" Logan now sounds absolutely outraged. Duncan thinks he's kind of overdoing it, but then, he's never really understood the dynamic between Logan and Veronica. He's thinks by all rights they should be too exhausted from all the squabbling to have the time to actually be friends.

"You never get carded," Veronica points out, "Even when people know you're too young, they still serve you."

"I bet you made Lilly one," he frowns, throwing himself down beside her on the bed.

"Of course," Veronica responds with a grin.

"And Duncan," Logan pouts.

"Naturally," she nods.

"And me?" Logan suggests, and it's only then that Duncan realizes Veronica never actually _said_ she didn't make Logan one.

"Duh," Veronica responds, and Logan reaches over and shoves her off the bed.

"Hey!" she protests as she sprawls in an ungraceful heap.

"And you're not even drunk yet," Logan quips.

"I'll get you," Veronica vows to Logan before turning around to bat her eyes in Duncan's direction. "Hey, boyfriend?"

"Yeah?" he asks in amusement, because god damn, his girlfriend is adorable.

"Attack that jerk for me, would you?" she asks, pouting prettily and blinking up at him from the floor between the beds.

"If it were any other jerk," Duncan tells her regretfully, "I'd love to play guard dog, but this _particular_ jerk, well, no can do."

"Ha!" Logan cries, "Duncan loves me more than you!"

"Now, children," Lilly chides them as she rejoins them, freshly showered. "We mustn't fight or our mommies and daddies won't be so quick to let us off our leashes."

"Oh, god, you're going to be the kind of freak who keeps her children on leashes, aren't you?" Logan groans. Lilly throws her towel at him, before sweeping her wet hair into a ponytail.

"Wow, Lilly," Veronica interjects, getting up off the floor to sit with Duncan on the bed. "Did you dress up for little ol' me?"

"You know it, lover," Lilly teases, vamping in her tiny blue silk nightgown in a way that her brother frankly wishes she wouldn't.

"Wow, this is shaping up to be an even better trip than I realized," Logan interjects as Lilly throws herself down beside him.

"Guys," Duncan winces, "As a special birthday present to me, could we all just pretend we're not dating each other?"

Veronica widens her blue eyes at him. "You don't want to be my boyfriend anymore?" she asks, and, oh god, how does she manage to sound like she's on the verge of tears at the drop of a hat? Duncan knows she's only teasing and his stomach is still in knots.

"Ronnie," he tries, but then her phone is ringing and she's grinning at him as she accepts the call.

"Whatever this is better be important because I'm currently in bed with my boyfriend. Oh, dad, I didn't realize it was you."

Duncan's heart nearly stops, and then his girlfriend is laughing, because _of course _she knew it was her dad on the phone. "Lilly," Veronica says, tossing her cell to her best friend, "As per our agreement, dad would like to talk to you."

"Hi, Mr. Mars!" Lilly chirps brightly.

"Agreement?" Logan asks in a low voice.

Veronica looks actually annoyed. "He's calling to check that, as per his stupid rules, Lilly is within arm's reach of me at all times during this trip."

"Like she's some sort of chastity belt virginity saver?" Logan asks in sincere (and _loud_) amusement. Duncan hopes that Mr. Mars can't hear Logan in the background over Lilly's chatter about the drive and the hotel.

"I swear, Mr. Mars, that my brother is not currently, nor has he ever, to my knowledge, ravished your daughter," Lilly says solemnly into the phone, then laughs at whatever her friend's father says in return. "I'll tell him that. Okay, Mr. Mars, you too. Talk to you tomorrow."

Lilly ends the call and returns the cellphone to Veronica, making Duncan squirm, the rat. "Well?" he demands.

"Veronica's dad says he forgot to show you his collection of unregistered handguns collected from crime scenes," Lilly relates. "He says that they're untraceable, and incidentally, he may or may not want to show them to you when you get home from this trip."

Duncan nods once, scoops his girlfriend off his bed and drops her on top of Logan on the other one. "Hey!" Veronica squeals, "You two are going to give me bruises, and destroy my fragile teenage psyche, what with all this shoving me out of bed nonsense!"

"Sorry, Ronnie, but I'm not prepared to risk angering your dad," Duncan tells her regretfully, smiling when she sticks out her tongue at him.

"That's okay, Mars," Logan comforts her, as Veronica crawls over his legs and joins him at the top of the bed. "I'm tough enough to take the risk."

"You can say that because her dad _likes _you," Duncan accuses, his best friend, and yeah, he's maybe a little envious of that.

"Aw, Donut, don't be sad," Lilly teases him merrily. "Look on the bright side."

"What's that? That he may like me again if I break up with his daughter?" Duncan asks, dodging the retaliatory pillow Veronica chucks at him.

"No," Lilly says, "I'm the one he's counting on to safeguard Veronica's virtue, and I have a long history of failing _spectacularly_ at such things."

ooOoo

Saturday they drive as far as they possibly can going east until noon, then they get out of the car and have a picnic lunch of leftovers Veronica salvaged from Logan's room service spree.

"Let's never go back," Lilly sighs as they lounge in the hot sun together. "Let's just stay here forever."

But they do have to go back, and so, less than an hour later, Logan is driving them west again. They end up in a hotel two blocks from the one they spent the previous night in, and Duncan insists on booking two rooms even though they all know they'll wind up only using one of them again. He wants to be able to tell Sheriff Mars honestly that they had two rooms.

Sunday they procrastinate a bit, because they stayed up late, and who really wants to rush aback to _Neptune_, anyway? But they've got a full day of driving ahead of them and so it's not much past nine when Duncan pulls out of the hotel lot. Before ten, Logan is snoozing against the window in the back, Veronica's head on his thighs, her small frame barely cramped on the wide back seat.

The road unfolds before them, deceptively infinite, and the heat blasted sand and a blue sky as cloudless as Veronica's eyes, is made beautiful by the fact that they're enjoying it from their bubble of air conditioned space inside the vehicle.

"This has been the best birthday," Lilly sighs beside him, turning the radio down to the softest background buzz.

"It wasn't your birthday," Duncan laughs.

"No, I know," his sister tells him, "But I think it was the best birthday anyone anywhere ever had."

Duncan has to agree with her, and, thinking back on what she said yesterday about wanting this to last forever, he thinks she's right about that, too. Glancing at Lilly, who is still watching the bright scenery roll by in perfect monotony, Duncan kind of feels like it could last at least that long.


	7. Indigo

**Indigo**

_For a while after she dies, he can't go near the ocean at all, and he gets horribly nauseated by the sight of the clear night sky above him; her death is an indigo bruise on his entire life. _

Logan's supposed to be surfing away his most recent heartbreak in Mexico when he gets the call that she's dead. Instead, he's on a beach in Neptune, less than a mile from her house, and at first he thinks, thank god there's only a mile between here and there and he's already groping for his keys.

It would be a lot worse to have to drive all the way from Mexico just to be able to see with his own eyes that Lilly Kane isn't _dead_.

Because of course she isn't. His mother was mistaken, probably drunk – she'd have to be to think breaking news like this over the phone was a good idea.

The surf pounds against the shore, once, twice, three times behind him and he's already getting into his car when he remembers his new surfboard, now laying abandoned in the sand. He hesitates, because he'd like this vicious rumour cleared up _soon_, but honestly, it will take him two seconds to run back for it, he can spare that, right?

In those two seconds, he realizes that he was an idiot for thinking that whether there was a mile or a million miles between him and the Kane house made any difference. That's what cellphones are for. So he pulls out his and uses it to call Lilly's.

And he waits through about twenty-five rings, but honestly, that's not even surprising. Lilly was spectacularly pissed over the Yolanda thing – _thank you Veronica_; of course she isn't picking up for Logan. And when Duncan doesn't answer, well, dude has been a zombie, lately. He even started avoiding Veronica, which is pretty unimaginable for someone who heard the way Duncan used to talk about her. Anyway, Duncan probably isn't answering his phone at all, anymore.

Logan thinks about calling Veronica, but something in him flinches from the idea. He thinks maybe it's because she tattled on him to Lilly about the kiss with Yolanda, even though that's kind of hypocritical of him, since Veronica has come to him before, when Lilly's been the one cheating.

No, he won't call Veronica; he'll just drive straight to the Kane house, sneak in the back, and get apologizing to Lilly over with so that his craptastic week can _finally _be done and he can start feeling normal again. Well, as normal as possible when Duncan is being such a freak.

ooOoo

An hour later, Logan winds up at Veronica's front door, and it's late, but he isn't entirely surprised when she's the one who opens the door, still wearing a hoodie and her pep squad whites.

"Logan?" she asks, her eyes red and bright with fresh tears, "What are you doing here?"

"I was driving..." he trails off, because he doesn't know how to _say it, _and fuck Veronica for making him, and since when didn't she understand his silence?

She glances past him, sees his vehicle and the surfboard he'd managed to strap to the roof back when there was still _hope_ in the world, or at least denial pretending to be hope. "Oh god, someone called you, didn't they? And told you over the _phone_," and now Veronica sounds distressed, as well as looking the part. "And you drove home from _Mexico_, and, oh god, Logan, I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry."

The last part she's sobbing into shirt, and Logan's arms are automatically wrapped around her, and he reaches for words to tell her he wasn't in Mexico, or that he drove by the Kanes' and saw the police cars and still took an hour to find his way to her, but all that comes out is, "It's true," and then he's crying and Veronica is turning her wet face up to look at his eyes, and her eyes never used to be so dark, he's sure, but then, Lilly was light and happiness and the good stuff and maybe that's why, now that she's dead, that's why –

Oh, fuck, Lilly Kane is dead, and he'll never get a chance to apologize for Yolanda, or get his shit together enough to date her exclusively for more than a month, or-

There are too many things he'll never have a chance for, Logan realizes, and that's the shape of the hole in his life, now that Lilly's dead.

ooOoo

There's a long stretch of time where Logan isn't totally aware of the world, but he eventually comes back to himself. The first thing he notices are the stars in the inky sky, and that seems wrong, on a metaphorical level, because didn't all the light just go out?

He then realizes that he's looking at the sky because he and Ronnie have slumped into a tangled heap on her front porch, and that's not good, right? Because it's got to be godawful late, and the Sheriff could come home at any second, and it wouldn't do for him to find Logan and his daughter in such a state, even if he's always liked Logan better than Duncan.

Except the Sheriff may be back to liking Duncan again, since he's not dating his daughter anymore, only that sounds to Logan like more of a reason to be pissed, and, and – where was he going with this?

"Ronnie," he rasps out, and fuck, he must really have been crying like he hasn't in years, for his voice to be that rough. "Ronnie, you should go inside."

"Where are you going?" she asks, sounding startled, her shadowed blue eyes ringed with dusky bruises born of exhaustion. And, oh, right, it wasn't that all the light went out, it was that the light went out of _Ronnie_ because _Lilly was dead._

"Nowhere," Logan tells her, and when she pulls him inside after her, he realizes that she heard it as a declaration to stay with her, when all he'd meant is that there wasn't any place left _to _go.

ooOoo

He's mostly cool at the funeral, thanks probably to some liquid fortification, despite a weird moment when his dad reaches over to clasp his shoulder, and Logan forgets to flinch, but it's fine because his father seems to be offering genuine support and affection, rather than subtly reminding him to behave, which hasn't happened in, god, _years_.

And then he's looking at the flawlessly repaired corpse of Lilly Kane, and its worse, somehow then watching the leaked police video had been, because there the gore had looked like so much makeup and Hollywood special effects, even when Logan tried to tell himself it was real. That's Lilly's blood, oozing from a crack in Lilly's skull, Logan had thought deliberately, trying to convince himself it was true in some fundamental way. That's your girlfriend's dead body.

It's more believable now, he supposes, but that's not what's freaking him out, really, because she's wearing this dusky blue dress, and he _recognizes it and who the fuck decided to bury Lilly Kane in something already hanging in her closet and holy fuck, he remembers the last time he saw her in that dress. _

And he remembers all of a sudden that Lilly wasn't just mad at him for the Yolanda thing, in the weeks before she died.

ooOoo

_Logan winces as she slams him back against his mattress. "Too rough, baby?" she asks, smiling after she whips her blue dress over her head to throws it on his floor. _

"_Nah," Logan dismisses, "It's just my back." He doesn't specify more because he knows she'll understand what the problem is and hopefully they'll be able to just move past it._

_She does understand, and still straddling his legs, Lilly drags him into a sitting position so she can examine his scarred back over his shoulder. She lets out a breathy little noise, but not one of the fun ones, and suddenly Lilly makes like she's going to climb off of him. _

_He grabs her hips to keep her in place, because who cares about his back when his girlfriend is so close to naked in his lap? _

"_Logan, I'm going to go call Veronica," she says, and he doesn't bother to ask why. Lilly doesn't like blood; neither Kane sibling does, so it has always fallen to Veronica to tend to wounds that are too bad to leave and not catastrophic enough for the hospital. _

"_Don't do that," Logan contradicts, "She's probably with Duncan, and I spent an hour on Sunday listening to him moan about how one of us always calls the second he gets her shirt off." _

"_I don't think Duncan's going to be so worried about that anymore," Lilly murmurs cryptically but not in her usual I've-got-a-secret-ask-me-what-it-is tone. _

"_Did they finally do the deed?" Logan asks in surprise. That seems like something he would have heard about sooner. _

"_Ugh, no," Lilly says, her nose scrunched up in distaste, Logan supposes because Duncan is her brother and they're talking about his sex life. Hell, he's not even related to Duncan and Veronica and it's a weird image for him. "Nothing like that."_

"_Whatever," Logan dismisses, "Let's not interrupt Ronnie's night, okay?"_

_Lilly looks at him seriously for a moment, and Logan tries to ignore the fact that she's in her underwear and return the favour. "I guess I could do it," Lilly sighs, "Just let me grab some gauze..."_

"_Just leave it alone, Lil," Logan suggests, "It's not that big a deal." _

_At that, she's on her feet, this time despite his attempts to keep her seated. "Not that big a deal?" she hisses, and she reaching for her dress, yanking it over her head, and isn't that just the opposite of what he was trying to accomplish here? "God, Logan, I really don't get you, because this is a bit deal, kind of the biggest fucking deal ever." _

"_Calm down, Lilly," he snaps, and Christ, does she _want _his dad to wake up and catch her here?_

"_No!" she snarls, though she keeps her voice low. Her dress is purple blue, melting into the darkness of his bedroom, but her hazel eyes are perfectly clear, and shooting off sparks like he's never saw before. "Because you won't let me get Veronica, and you won't let me help and its abundantly clear that you're not about to do anything about it, and I'm not sure Duncan even _understands _the problem, and I'm sorry if this makes me a bitch, but it all just makes me so _fucking angry!"

"_Lilly," he tries softly, because, yeah, it's kind of a bitchy thing to say, but it comes from the right feeling, he's pretty sure. "Come back to bed, baby. It will all be okay, I promise." _

_Her chin goes up and her jaw clenches, and she's suddenly less in danger of boiling over, but somehow Logan's pretty sure he hasn't won, anyway."I... just can't right now, Logan," she tells him, and she walks out. _

_Which is pretty crappy of her really, when you think about it._

ooOoo

And, oh god, oh god, the next night was the night with Yolanda and the stupid party and he'd been feeling petty and so he'd _kissed another girl_, and how could he do that to Lilly?

He needs to _leave_, right now, or he's going to – well, he doesn't _know_, and that's kind of enough, isn't it? Logan turns to go, but then his father's hand is on his elbow, and _squeezing_, and he says, "Son, I know it's hard, but you've got to pay your respects," and he hasn't got the Hollywood smile on, but it's a close cousin of this carefully constructed look of grief and parental concern. "Lilly was a great girl, and she died too young."

Logan wants to scream, to shout _don't talk about her, you didn't know her_, but long years of painful lessons have shown him that shouting at his father is just another way of letting the man win, so instead Logan lets himself be led to a pew, where he remains bolted for the rest of the service.

He needs to escape, but where would he go, anyway? The beach, where he first heard the words _Lilly Kane is dead_? Or maybe out into the twilight, where he first believed them? He thinks of Veronica, but, oh god, he can't face Ronnie's inky blue eyes, like oceans and night skies and all the other places that have seen his pain.

That's what he thinks about, while people drone on and on about the girl they think Lilly was; how much he fucking hates Ronnie and her sad blue eyes, and how much he needs her to stop staring at him, confronting him with memories the colour of the last dress Lilly Kane will ever wear, the last dress Logan Echolls will ever slide from her body. 


	8. Violet

**Violet**

_In the end, it all fades, the good and the bad and all the rest, until it's just a pale, pretty, violet cloud of things that once happened; now she thinks that that's maybe even a good thing, a necessary thing. _

Veronica goes to Shelley Pomroy's party for a lot of reasons. The white dress she and Lilly had spent agonizing hours picking out for junior prom is still hanging in her closet unworn, and that seems _wrong_. Shelley herself came up to her and suggested that Veronica and her _negative attitude_ would only kill the party, and it might be best if she just stays home. Her father is still getting used to her mother's departure, and it's painful to watch him mope around their tiny new apartment.

Mostly though, it's because things are _wrong_ between her and Duncan and her and Logan, and Veronica is pretty sick of it. She's let the boys sulk long enough, and sure some harsh words have been said all around, but that's all water under the bridge if they let it be because they all loved each other, just as much as they loved Lilly, and pretending otherwise is pretty stupid.

That's the last thing she really remembers thinking, the next morning, when she wakes up to discover herself in a pretty altered state of being. Her head pounds and her body aches in funny places and she feels grimy and – _oh god, where are her underwear?_

She leaves as quick as she can, and her car is a wreck, but that's quite honestly, the _least_ of her problems, and she has to go to the police, that's what she has to do, because that's who you should go to when you need help –

Unless your last name is Mars, Veronica discovers. And maybe there are tears in her eyes when _Sheriff Lamb_ laughs her out of his office, but she dries them pretty quick. As of this moment, Veronica is through trying to _fix_ things, because everything just turns to crap in the end, no matter what she does, so why bother? When the word SLUT scrawled across her hood accosts her again, Veronica considers leaving it there, because, really, _so what_?

Then she remembers her father, and how it will kill him just a little bit more to see this, and so she gets in and goes looking for a carwash as far from home as she can manage. There's a difference between not trying to fix broken things and actively smashing the few good things that are left.

She starts scrubbing the paint from her car among the sidelong looks of those patrons who are rinsing away mere dirt, and it reminds her of wearing a pep squad t-shirt and washing cars for charity while Lilly taunts her about having a secret and – _no crying, Veronica_.

Okay, so she has her dad, and her mission to keep him from finding out how totally destroyed she is, but Veronica's a smart girl, and she can handle more than that. And in the wreckage of everything else, she still _loves _Lilly Kane, and maybe that's something worth holding on to.

Veronica decides then and there that she's going to solve her best friend's murder.

ooOoo

When she first starts coming to the grave, and sees that there are dozens of cut lilies laid out in tribute, Veronica is _furious_.

Lilly _hated _lilies, and she would have thought this display was trite and obvious, and _how dare they_? And, insult on injury, they're all _white_, and anyone who _knew_ Lilly would have brought orange or purple or, she doesn't know, _fuchsia_. Veronica plucks every bloom from the grave site and crams them all into a garbage can before going back with her own offering.

Sure, the yellow carnations she's brought don't exactly flood the area or make an impressive display, but she can practically _see_ Lilly cheering her on as she does away with the carpet of expensive, empty gestures.

Next time, she'll bring poppies, she thinks, bright scarlet blooms to saturate what's left of Lilly with colour.

ooOoo

Investigating a murder is slow going, Veronica discovers, especially when you're afraid of getting caught by your father. Other cases are easier, and she begins to enjoy the work, even, beyond just liking to help her father out and fill in the hours left empty by the implosion of her social life.

And she slowly becomes better at smiling despite the bitter anger that's nearly always bubbling under the surface. Veronica builds a facade of a girl who is slowly getting over a terrible tragedy (or seven). And yeah, she has weak moments, like when she takes a pair of scissors to her own hair, or when the internal bitterness lashes out and makes her tongue too sharp. She learns to use those things; she adjusts her wardrobe to match the haircut, uses her words like weapons and armour both.

In the heat of southern California in July, Veronica reforges herself and by August she is baked hard, through and through.

It's lucky for her that she avoids Logan Echolls that long, because the first time she sees him after Shelley's party, in early August five days after she turns sixteen, she realizes that she's not hard all the way through, and there's still something raw and bleeding in the heart of her that beats wildly out of control at just the sight of this boy on the beach, like it was any summer day _before_.

"Ronnie," he says, and it's torturously gentle, sad and regretful. He looks better then she's seen him at any time _since_, not happy like he was _before_, but he isn't glaring at her like she's a traitor, like he doesn't know her, like he doesn't – didn't _love her, too._

Well, fuck that.

"Backup," she tells her pit bull, "Attack."

The dog just whimpers, confused because he doesn't know how to account for a friend who isn't anymore.

"Damn," she says cooly, "I was hoping that would work."

And she walks away, and _she will not cry _and she _will not turn back_, and then he yells "Bitch!" after her, and that makes it easier, especially since it doesn't sound anything like when he used to use that same word for another blonde girl who knew his every dark secret.

ooOoo

Too many things happen while she's trying to solve Lilly's murder, and things keep getting in the way, and regrets start to pile up. She's not sure when treating him like an enemy became a regret, but she knows it happens some time before she agrees to investigate his mother's death.

She knows she's forgiven him for treating her the same way when Trina mentions Logan lying about cigarette burns and beatings, because she wants to tear the stupid girl limb from limb. This is the first she's ever heard of Logan trying to _tell_ someone about the things he suffered; when she knew him, he was always adamantly silent, even while she washed the evidence from his skin and bandaged the tattered remains of his back.

And somewhere along the way, so many of the old resentments and the injuries fall away, because it's all just _too much_ to hold on to.

Maybe that's the way it's supposed to be, with all the past softening to the violet tones of twilight.

ooOoo

When she comes to the grave this time, Veronica leaves the new offerings of white lilies where they lay. She just clears a little space to the left of the stone, digs a shallow hole and plants the purple pansies that she's brought for Lilly.

After all, as Logan reminded her the other day, violets were always Lilly's favourite flower.


	9. Iridescent

**Iridescent **

_The thing about the dead girl was, she wasn't just one colour, she was a rainbow all her own, colourful and short lived, and after she was gone, and her friends were whittled down to two battered survivors, they had to find that iridescence for themselves. _

It has been so many years since Lilly Kane died that no one ever knows the exact number, and they have to stop and count to figure it out.

Maybe this is part of the reason they don't think of her so much, any more.

There's a new stubborn blonde in the world, a six year old diva whose middle name is Lilly, who thinks she was named after her Uncle Duncan's daughter, and tells him so when they fly to Australia to see him. Her birth is the date around which her parents order their lives.

Or rather, it's one of the dates, because their calendar contains other anniversaries, occasions and events, including the birth of twin sons who don't share their names with any dead people. They are _happy_ in a true, clear blue way that has taken long years to achieve, and these days, when they crave adventure, it's always flavoured with orange blossoms; they don't even own an excitement-yellow car.

She wears a blue dress to a birthday party, and he tells her she looks pretty, just the same as the day before, when she wore a red bikini and he rubbed sunscreen on her back.

Colours change, and fade and mute and sometimes get outshone by new bright shades. It isn't tragedy or weakness or loss of faith; it is simply life.

"Daddy?" their youngest boy whispers, wrapping his chubby fingers around a fistful of his father's pants. "I don't want to leave Neptune."

His daddy bends down and swoops him into his arm, repeating the trick a moment later when the elder twin approaches at break-neck pace. Their daughter is probably lurking nearby, hoping for another chance to chase her little brother down when their father isn't looking on. Or maybe she's helping her mother pack; either way, she's heard all his stories before, and now he has a fresh audience.

"Did I ever tell you, boys, about the wonderful thing that happened when my family moved away from where I had always lived before that?" he asks his beautiful sons, "I met your mother, and even though she tried to give me away to your Uncle Duncan that first day, it was still one of the brightest days of my life."

ooOoo

**A/N:** And so it ends, a little more cheerfully than my last entry in this category! Next up will a long-ish multichapter au fic currently called "The Difference It Makes". I've got the first eleven chapters written, and will begin posting once I've written it to the end. Thanks so, so much to everyone who took the time to read this fic, and especially to those who reviewed!


End file.
